Has Amber Heard gone completely broke after Johnny Depp trial?

When will Amber Heard be able to rest from the mediatic attacks? She definitely had questionable behavior these last years, but does that justify all the shade she’s going through? Johnny Depp is being celebrated as a winner, when the truth is he didn’t “win” the trial, only got a bigger fee. Meanwhile, Amber is going through hell. Not only was she exposed on international T.V. It looks like she went broke too. 

According to Heard’s lawyers, she’s currently not capable of paying Johnny Depp the awarded-by-court damages. Not to mention all her possible job opportunities were burned with her reputation. Further than having a critical point of view over this whole situation, people’s minds have been divided into a Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard scenario. Apparently, you must agree with one and hate the other. 

It’s worrisome how polarized & uncritical we can be, and the moral license we take to judge others’ lives, especially when it comes to public figures. Besides the binary one v. one thought, we should analyze the social implications of this case, which are plenty. Saying Heard is going through what she deserves is punitive & reductionist, considering money has been a historical control mechanism over women. 

Did Amber Heard go broke?

There’s no need for evidence to ensure this is a fact. Frankly, we all saw this coming from the moment the cards started playing against Heard. Also, Johnny Depp’s radical attitude stated no mercy from the beginning, he went to trial claiming V from Vendetta, not only to vindicate from defamation. Heard rested, exposed, and with no professional future, and now she holds an unpayable debt to Depp. 

The court determined both parties committed defamation against the other, nevertheless, Heard has more points against her. After the never-ending trial in Fairfax, Virginia, the actress was determined to pay $15 million to Depp for damages, while she was awarded $2 million for the same reason. Fortunately, a Virginia law to reduce punitive damages lowered Heard’s debt to $8.5 million. 

While platforms like Celebrity Net Worth ensure Heard counts on $2.5 million, that wouldn’t cover either half of her reduced debt. On the other hand, Depp’s net worth goes further than $100 million, after all, he’s a Hollywood legend. Even with the massive losses defamation caused him he’s standing with an impeccable bank account, and he’s trendy again. Meanwhile Heard is broke and canceled.

Depp v. Heard 

We could do several lists of the multiple trial moments between Depp & Heard, but we’ll stick to the money-related court situations. This case has stretched for so long that it’s hard to keep the pace. It all started in 2016 with domestic violence declarations & divorce, followed by the defamation trial involving the British newspaper The Sun in 2020. 

This time, Depp sued Heard for $50 million for defamation after the opinion piece about domestic violence that she wrote for The Guardian in 2018. In this article, Heard started to be recognized as a domestic violence survivor and a female rights activist. Despite Heard never mentioning Depp by name, it wasn’t hard to connect the dots. 

Even without mentioning his name, Heard was accused by Depp’s team of defamation, due to all the economic losses Depp went through after the article. Although both parties committed violence & defamation against each other, Heard was always in a more vulnerable position, and yes all this was due to a gender situation. 

This is one of the structural differences we should take into consideration when debating this case. There always existed an abysmal power difference between both of them, that certainly doesn’t justify defamation, but is something important to consider. It’s a shame Heard misused #MeToo because social movements become the only weapon in these cases, now she’s broke & canceled.